Click
by LPDracobeatsall
Summary: Dear reader, I'm sorry to burst your bubble but I can walk fine on flat surfaces. I have hobbies outside of staring and breathing. I'm not in love with Edward Cullen. Stephanie Meyer wrote our story wrong, and I'm here to fix it. Do you want to know the real story of how I discovered Edward? P.S. Don't be shocked when it seems nothing like Twilight
1. My Note to You

Dear reader,

A few years ago I was approached by a lady on the street. Glancing nervously at Edward as he stood next to me, she told me that she was an author. Not understanding her motives for telling me this, I said that was very nice. She leaned in close to the two of us and apologized, "Don't worry, I KNOW." Glancing at Edward for help, he ticked his eyes to the left in the universal sign for "let's ditch this crazy." She reached out and grabbed his pale arm, "You don't have to hide. I want to write about your kind, about you, maybe?" We didn't believe her. Edward and his fellow vampires had not worked this hard to keep their existence a secret just to confess it to every crazy lady on the street. I apologized, told her she was mistaken, and continued to try to pass her by. "He is a vampire, one of the Cullens." She proclaimed. How she knew this we didn't know, but she seemed to know enough that we agreed we should talk to her, if only to determine how much she knew and if she should be silenced.

It was in a coffee shop a few blocks down the road from my home in Forks that I first talked to Stephanie Meyer. Her knowledge of vampires extended only as far as what she had told us, and her knowledge of the Cullens was from observing Carlisle at the hospital. Stalking him, I should say. Her immediate jump to him being something supposedly supernatural seemed to indicate brain malfunction, but in this case she was correct. She told us, me actually, that she wanted to write OUR story. Yes, that's right, she misjudged my friendship (or strained acquaintanceship) with Edward for something deep and passionate. He was quick to jump in, looking offended as I choked on my drink, and correct her.

I should have known then. She wanted to hear the story, every last bit, and told us she would take notes as we talked. We couldn't put Edward in danger, we explained. But no, she would change the names, make people believe it was just another fiction book. So we told her.

So my point? My reason for writing below my entire story if she supposedly did it for me? She screwed it up. Vampires that sparkle? Heated passion and, gag me, marriage between me and Edward? Me being some ditzy idiot who can't walk straight and Edward a crazy controlling and boring person? Well, I guess she got the boring right. Anyway, it was ALL MADE UP. I don't know if she did it on purpose to keep us hidden but it doesn't matter because she used OUR REAL NAMES. We were officially outed to the community. Edward is now an outcast to every male in the world and being continually stalked by 12-year-olds. And me, getting hate mail and death threats from girls who believe I married Edward. And everyone thinks I'm a vampire now, which sucks (no pun intended).

Read it from me, the real story as it should have been told.


	2. Proof that I'm not an Anti-Social Idiot

**Author's Note: **

**Hey guys! I am soooo sorry for not posting anything for a while and you can all blame my computer. Have you ever had your computer crash? There's a first time for everything. I lost my stories. I had it all written and then I just had to go back and rewrite everything. Not just for this story either, I lost the next chapter to "Finding the New Tinkerbell" too, so I'm rewriting that one as well. For your steady patience I wrote 2 chapters for this one (because you guys deserved to watch Iz meet Edward). Thanks so much and as always please review!**

* * *

Chapter 1

I start my story one day before I left for Forks. I did have friends, plenty of them, back in Phoenix. In fact, that last day in town was our very last movie night as a group.

Usually, we had it on Friday's at Kim's house but everyone decided we needed to have one more before I left which made the last one on a Sunday.

Rob was our movie guy, which meant no one really ever WATCHED what he brought. As Kim's boyfriend he tended to lean more toward the "weird" side of nerdy and his movies pretty much showed that. Documentaries on tornadoes, slasher films, and strange "new age" "three guys sitting in a room for three hours talking" movies were what he preferred. Now while that sounds oh so fabulous, these weekly gatherings didn't actually suck that bad. Maybe it was the fact that Juliet was the kind of person who- when in doubt- created games on the fly. Even if the only supplies she had were a bottle of Pepsi, clothes pins, and a Kleenex box. It could have been that Sky's family was rich and she always brought the food, and it was always unhealthy which then spurred Kim to rant about fat for a good hour. Or that Sky's boyfriend Alex had a tendency to say what everyone was thinking, even if no one else had the guts to voice it. Whatever the reason, these times together were never perfect but they were the closest thing any of us had to a social life.

I didn't get there until ten, halfway through what looked to be a documentary about what was REALLY happening in hospitals, but I new once they saw what I had brought no one would really care.

Rob was transfixed as a woman on the screen clacked her heels down the bleached hallways hunched to seem invisible. Ally was in the rocking chair texting the guy she met at work only a week before.

She had been cleaning tables and heard him behind her asking the girl at the front desk for an application form. After one conversation and a lot of staring she declared him her new target, even after Juliet, Sky, Alex, and I had declared him out of her league after a run for curly fries and shakes one afternoon. Of course we never point blank told her that, that would have been bitchy to the extreme, but we started dropping hints every now and then.

Kim and Sky were in the kitchen, Kim giving her practically mandatory lecture on how she didn't eat anything with sugar or anything deep fried and how great she felt because of it. Her already squinty eyes got even squintier as she got to the part about how she wished everyone here lived the way she did because we would benefit so much. My favorite part was how she always forgot that the reason she was so physically fit was not because she avoided sugar, but because she was on the track, tennis, and volleyball teams at school. That much exorcise is just not healthy for people and she's example A.

Juliet was on the floor, back to the couch, surrounded by three 2 lbs. dumbbells, a bottle of honey, a box of Cheerios, and a handful of bobby pins. God only knew what game would come out of all of that.

Alex was using spray cheese to cover his bowl of popcorn as he watched his girlfriend and Kim argue. It never got very heated, mostly because we knew it would happen all over again the next week, but it was always a good show while you avoided the movie and waited for Juliet to save the day.

And like usual I did what I do best, I took pictures. Unlike usual, it wasn't in the hopes of finding a subject worth adding to my portfolio, it was silly pictures of my friends doing what they did best. I didn't bother attaching a flash or making sure I used the correct lens. I didn't question whether I should take it landscape or if it should be in black and white. I simply let the pictures come out however they wanted to.

"Oh no, hand it over," Sky said, glaring at my going away present with her arguing forever saved inside of it. I grinned and slipped the strap off from around my neck.

"You break this and I will forever hate you," I warned her, passing it over.

She scrolled through the few photos and deleted the one I just took. "And if you ruin this," she gestured at herself without looking up, "I will forever hate you."

No one said anything for a second as Kim and Alex leaned in to look at the other pictures with Sky.

"…could there be aliens patrolling these halls we call safe, experimenting on us as we are unconscious? We met up with Pat Moren for more on the story…"

"Aliens? Really?" I called to Rob.

"I think we all should know what's in our hospitals." He said without moving his eyes off the screen. And yes, that does seem terribly ironic now that I remember it, but then again, most things do.

"I think they're called doctors." Ally said, not taking her eyes off her phone.

"Where's Lucas and Jack?" I asked the group in front of me.

"Hmm? Oh, they're coming later, they were taking some girls from East to turnabout." Kim said.

"What is this? A tire?" Sky mumbled, twisting the camera for a better angle.

"I think it's playground dirt." Alex corrected. He looked up at me. "Wow, Bells, these pictures are terrible."

"Alex!" Sky nudged him.

"I know," I laughed. "I'm totally stuck right now. My talent is gone."

"No, you still have talent," Sky prodded. "Remember your fifteen pictures of leaves? And those were all so REAL, you did fifteen and not one of them was boring or the same."

"You still have it," Kim added. "You just need to find the right subject."

"And I'm sure there will be plenty of subjects in Forks." Sky encouraged.

I laughed. "Yeah, sure. So how's it coming Jules?"

Juliet glanced up. "Almost done."

I nodded. This was pretty much every movie day summed up in one. Eventually, Juliet set up a game where the barbells ends were stood up and coated in honey, the bobby pins sticking upright to ring-toss the cheerios onto. Sky snuck some sprite into Kim's water causing her to spit it out over all of us. Rob never moved his eyes from the TV until the movie finally ended and Ally snuck in with "The Heat" to finish the night. Classic is what I would call it but the night was too off because of my move the next day to feel completely legit.

It was a little past midnight when I pulled the pictures out of my bag. Sneak attacks that I had gotten of all of them the week before. It was my going away present, a funny reminder that there had once been a ninth to the little group. They did what they did best, what I knew they would do. Ally would not look away from her stack, pretending to be so absorbed she was indifferent. Rob kept glancing from the photos of one of us to the real thing in front of him, mentally comparing. Sky begged me to send her all of the new pictures I would take in Forks, but I knew it was more for my sake than something she really wanted. Juliet told me to come over the next time I was in town, no matter when that was. Kim burst into tears about how nothing was going to be the same with me missing but we all knew that was a lie. The group would still meet every Friday to avoid whatever Rob chose to show. Kim and Sky would still get into fights over fat and Juliet and Ally would be blissfully unaware as they tended to their own distractions.

There was only one person my going away truly affected, and he caught up to me as I was halfway down the driveway with my keys in my hand.

"We still have a deal, right?" Jack's tone was casual, unconcerned. I tried to see around it to the part that said my answer mattered to him.

"I don't know," I hedged. "It doesn't seem like you want them that badly."

"Iz-" Jack, the only person on this planet I allowed to call me Iz. He shot me a look, the one that said 'let's be serious for a second, mmmkay?'

I turned to look at him full on, hip cocked, hands fidgeting with my keys. The moon was full so I could see every feature of his face and I suddenly started to panic that he was going to kiss me. I've only ever been kissed once before and it was by him. We were all hanging out, going bowling, when the guys went to go get food. The conversation went- like it usually does when the speakers are all girls- over many different topics until we finally came to our first kisses. Kim's was after her first date with Rob, outside her front door as he dropped her off. Sky's happened as a fluke because her first boyfriend, Tony, didn't know that he was going to be her first kiss.

He saw her after school sophomore year (before Sky's parents struck oil and bought her a car), waiting for a ride, and told her she could get a ride home along with his four brothers. She had had a crush on Tony for a while and followed him up to the van. It was as she tried to climb in that Tony's oldest brother, Charlie, stated that he would not drive anyone else home. Tony whispered something to Charlie, which we later discovered was the complete lie of Sky being his girlfriend, and Charlie demanded that he prove it. So, he leaned out towards Sky and kissed her. It only lasted a second before he pulled back and helped her into the van with Charlie's approval.

It was after this story that everyone turned to me. And Ally said, "Oh, I forgot, you're a kiss virgin."

"You've never been kissed before?" Jack asked from behind me. Because, yes, the boys had just come back with pizza.

I tried not to blush as I turned to face him. So what if I had never been kissed before? It's not like I was the only 16-year-old girl who had never had the experience.

"No, I haven't," I said.

"Oh, ok," he said. And then he bent down and kissed me, right there in front of everyone. I was a little shocked, and I went stiff. Jack was a great friend and I had checked him out a couple of times, but I had never gotten this far with my fantasies of what could happen between us. He pulled back and smiled at me, as if he did this every day. "Now you have." He said simply, reaching over me for a slice of pizza before he finally sat down across the table.

We'd never talked about it. I'm sure it didn't matter to him, but it took up every spot in my mind when he talked to me. Instant replay forever.

"We have a deal," I told him. A set of my pictures mailed from me to him every month. To keep me focused, to give me a goal.

I still hadn't figured out how he would benefit from it.

He smiled and reached out, gave me a playful tug on my arm. I loosened my stance and he stepped forward, burying me in his chest.

I'm not a touchy feely kind of person, if you want to know the truth. When the theater kids all rush to hug and hang on each other after every class period as though the world's ending I cringe away. It's awkward having someone suddenly pull you up against them. And most people cannot give good hugs.

But Jack, Jack knows how to hug me in a way that doesn't make me stiffen up and cringe away. His chest was warm under my cheek and he rested his chin on the top of my head. He didn't strangle-hug in a bear-like way as most people do. He reached one hand across me and rested that hand on my hip the other one pressing on the small of my back, pushing me towards him. If safety needed a picture this was it.

All too soon he let go, draping one arm across my shoulders as he walked me to my car. We didn't say anything on the walk over or after he opened and closed my door for me. There was nothing to say. Tomorrow I would be no more than monthly pictures in the mail.


	3. Ginger and his Headaches

Chapter 2

Moving in, I discovered, was a lot easier than actually living somewhere. Charlie had had the sense to remove all my old toys and things that wouldn't be needed now that I was 16. All that was left was clean sheets on an old bed, an empty dresser, mirror, and the clouds painted on sky-blue walls. I loved it then and I still love it now.

I filled the drawers and the cabinet in the bathroom. Finally, I took out my copies of the photos of my friends and taped them up on the mirror. I looked around. A half-an-hour gone and I was already finished. Out my window down on the driveway my new truck rusted.

Charlie had been embarrassed by it. One of his friend's kids was good with cars and had been working on making the old thing drivable. It was rust covered and had 410,000 miles on it. And that was just what I could see on the outside. Never having been good with cars, I could only imagine what was wrong under the hood. Charlie had felt the same, but seeing as how it was his best friend, it was practically free, and that I did need something to get me to school, he agreed.

"But don't think this is it," he had explained to me. "As soon as it breaks down and we can get rid of it without looking ungrateful we'll buy you something reliable."

And so I was left with an old truck without air conditioning, crank-up windows, and seats that smelled like wet-dog. I was ready to crash it just for a new one.

* * *

And now I reach the only part of my life that I wish Stephanie Meyer had been right in writing: my first day of school.

If only everyone had automatically fallen in love with me. How awesome would that have been? But no, I live in the real world where, sadly, when you go to a new school, in a small town, a month into the second semester people do not treat you like a god.

In fact, on my way from the parking lot to the main office I was stared at as if _I_ was the vampire in this story. Turning heads with each step, I managed to arrive in the office with most of the dignity I had started with. Sure it was awkward being new, but it was almost invigorating to know that of all the people at this school I was different in a way that made people stare at me.

"Isabella?" I stopped a cringe at my full name. People at home tended to call me Bells or (in Jack's case) Iz. But for some reason I really didn't want the people here to call me either. As if the slightest similarity between Forks and Phoenix was enough to say that that part of me was gone.

"It's Bella," I said remembering the nickname strangers usually associated with me.

She gave me the typical "do I look like I care" look all secretaries are born knowing. "Here's your schedule and you need to get this sheet signed by all of your teachers."

I took them from where she had placed them on the counter and frowned. "Umm, I actually am supposed to be in French. And Art, any type really."

Her eyes said "Oh, are you still here?" "Honey, you're from Phoenix right?" But she didn't wait for my answer. "Forks is not like Phoenix. We barely have enough students in your class to vary the schedules, much less offer classes that do not follow the basic schedule."

I still stared at her but she turned away, dismissing me. I rolled my eyes and turned away, memorizing my first room number before leaving the office.

I immediately bolted for the back of the classroom. No way was I going to be the new student who was also _eager _to learn.

"Umm, hey,"

I turned to my right and looked through the long fringe of hair into the Asian guy's eyes.

"Hey," I said.

"You're new, aren't you?"

I smiled, trying to look casual. "It's obvious, isn't it?"

He laughed, short high pitched gasps. "Yeah, a little bit. Umm, so, I'm editor of the school newspaper and we're always looking for stories. A new student is kind of a great story."

"Hmmm," I pretended like I was thinking about it even though this was the club I had been hoping to join. "How about I join the paper and write my own story? I'm a pretty good writer and I love photography."

He smiled. "Photography? Really?" But then he seemed to realize that he sounded too eager. He leaned back in his seat. "Umm, well, I'd have to see some of your work first, you know, to make sure you're up to our standards."

I held back my smile. "Of course. I'll bring it in tomorrow, ok?"

He nodded slowly, like he was thinking about it. "Sounds good. If they're decent I'll let you write that story too."

"Deal,"

The teacher walked in and I leaned back in my seat, waiting for class to be over.

The guy came back up to me at the end of class as I waited for the teacher to sign my sheet.

"So where are you going next?" I showed him my schedule. "Do you want me to show you where that is?"

I thought about it. I could probably figure it out on my own, but he seemed a little eager, desperate even. "Yeah, ok."

I followed him down the hall.

"By the way, I'm Eric if you were wondering."

"Bella."

Eric showed me my next class and I managed to make it through my next couple of classes without a struggle. I didn't blend in, but people still ignored me as if I was just another wall.

A girl I met in one of my classes, Jessica, invited me to eat lunch with her. She seemed like kind of a snob but sitting with her would be better than sitting by myself. Trust me when I say Stephanie Meyer wrote her as perfectly as if she knew her.

In a school as small as this one, the cafeteria layout was shocking. There was the nerd table, the bitch table, and the jock table. But the people who usually would have filled the sorta nerd table, aspiring bitch table, and unathletic boy table were all sitting at my table together. There were too few of them to create their own tables. I named my table the outcast tabled. Figures the new student would sit there.

I bought the cardboard pizza and a Pepsi and sat down with everyone. Jessica was talking with the girl next to her about a new shirt she just bought and Eric, the only other person at the table that I knew, was sketching some pretty intense anime in a notebook.

I looked around the cafeteria, trying to find a distraction from the lack of conversation directed at me. A face stuck out at me.

Well, more the table than the face. It was the only other table that I saw which had a mix of different kinds of people at it.

One boy was obviously a football player. His muscle size was crazy in the way that screamed he spent way too much time admiring and improving his looks than doing anything else. The girl next to him, hanging on his arm, had the kind of flip-able blond hair and heavily made-up eyes to make me believe she was a cheerleader. The boy next to her had mad scientist blond hair and a look that screamed "uncomfortable surrounded by things other than technology". He kept rubbing a hand across his mouth as if he had food smeared there. The girl next to him screamed "theatre" with her too-dark-to-be-real black hair and faraway expression. But the face that had caught my eye was of the guy sitting next to her. A natural red-head his ginger hair was a mess of short curls. His face was freckled and pale, but defined in a way that made his boy-ish hair seem manly and grown-up. He was glaring at me. Hatred already forming.

What the hell?

"What's up with ginger?" I asked anyone who would answer at my table. I earned a glare from Jessica.

"Jesus, Bella. Way to make friends." She sighed, seeing the question in my eyes. "He's one of the Cullens, that whole group sitting over at that table? All adopted, all taken."

"More like taken to insest." Eric mumbled. Ewww.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well, I mean it's ok because they're not really related." Jessica cut in. "But they live together and they're couples. Rose and Emmett and Jasper and Alice."

WTF? Immediately the words "Small Town" popped into my head. Was that what happened around here? Was everyone ok with this?

Looking at Jessica, it seemed that they were more than respected, almost worshipped.

I looked at Eric.

"It's because of Dr. Cullen." He explained quietly. "He's one of the best doctors out there and he chose to work in our hospital over many better offers. I mean who would come here on purpose?"

So they were all living in their father's shadow? Reaping the benefits from a desperate town. Nice.

I looked back over at Ginger but he was hunched over now, rubbing his temples as if he had a headache. Whatever.

Lunch moved slowly with the conversations mostly surrounding me rather than including me. I didn't care, my mind was on my friends back at my old school.

One day, the week before Christmas break, Kim, Ally, Lucas, and me were sitting at our old lunch table. Sky, Rob, Juliet, Jack, and Alex, were in different lunch periods. Lucas had bought a juice box that day. You know the kind- made for 5-year-olds not high schoolers with the bendy straw and a picture of some PBS kids' character on the side. He had finished the Dixie cup sized amount of juice inside of it and was amusing himself by blowing up the carton and then spraying us with the trapped air.

"Lucas, I swear to god if you do that one more time I will smack you!" Kim shouted.

Ally shot me a look and grabbed the carton out of his hand, filling it herself. But when she went to hit Kim with the air some leftover juice came with it.

I laughed so hard my lemonade came out my nose and then I was shouting over the pain as loud as Kim was over her sticky pants.

And Lucas, Lucas took out his phone and took a picture of us.

I wanted to go back. I'd take lemonade in the nose for it any day.

I stepped into Biology, a class that spurred a deep hatred from me. And here in Forks it seemed this class would stay the bane of my existence because sitting at the only lab table with an empty seat was Ginger.

Fan-freakin'-tastic.

I had images of me "accidentally" lighting him on fire with the Bunsen burner as I walked to me seat. I know people always say violence is never the answer, but I can guarantee you that imaginary violence can do wonders for your mood.

I leaned my book bag against my stool and then looked over at him. He was leaned over again, rubbing at his temples as if a large animal was threatening to burst out.

He was better than my last lab partner. Juliet named him "ice man" after an incident with me and the fans in the lab.

We had just been working, separately because he creeped me out, when I turned towards the fan at the end of our table. It was always hot in the science labs and that day was the hottest I had ever seen it. When I turned back he suddenly came closer to me and held his hands close to my face. I froze.

"Wow, you're like ice. I can feel the cold on your skin." He'd said, and then turned back to his work.

I looked at Ginger, hopefully he wouldn't ever do that to me.

He looked up at me, catching my eye with his intense glare. I stared back at him, feeling my "you got a problem?" face taking shape.

He didn't look away. "What?" I snapped.

I swore for a second he was going to answer, but then he turned back to rubbing at his head and staring at the table.

Biology, what a joy it always was.

When I finally got home, I just wanted to call my friends. Charlie had warned me that he usually worked through dinner time so I was going to be alone until late.

Let me tell you something I'm sure you all know: long distance relationships (whether you're just friends or something more) suck.

Kim was at guitar lessons, Sky was at yoga, Ally was working, and everyone else didn't text me back. Jack, for obvious reasons, I didn't try.

I sighed. They were probably all hanging out together and if I was home, I would be too.

I shuffled through my drawers upstairs and pulled out my camera. At least the woods were my backyard so I could get some good pictures before dark.

I pulled on my boots and a heavy coat that Ally called "Mr. Blimp" when I bought it a week ago and stomped out into the ice covered leaves.

It's amazing what new scenery can do when I feel uninspired. Automatically my eye was glued to the lens. I snapped picture after picture of the icy wonderland around me.

Snow blown sideways on a tree, ice coated branches that looked like spun glass, animal tracks leading deeper into the dagger filled winter, everything was new and intense.

And then I stopped.

I had been walking deeper and deeper for hours, relying on the steady stream of boot prints behind me to guide me back home. But then I came across the deer.

She was laying down in the snow on her side, facing away from me with her legs spread out in front of her. It looked as unnatural as the fact that she hadn't heard me stomping around and bolted away.

Despite my mind telling me to leave it be and go home, I crept closer. She was dead, that was clear in the way her eyes lay open and unseeing. Some morbid part of me searched for the cause of her death but she seemed perfectly fine. There was no sign of a struggle or-

My eyes stopped on her neck. Dried blood caked the dark pelt, blending in.

I backed off, glancing around me. It was time to go home.

The boot prints led me back and I found dinner waiting for me in the fridge. That's right, I forgot about the deer in exchange for food. At the time it seemed like a common animal attack to my city eyes, why would I have focused on something so ugly?

I went to bed before Charlie got home after checking my phone and finding no new messages. My first full day in Forks was officially over.


	4. Jerk with Pants on Fire

Chapter 3

So I could go on about how my life continued on as normal as ever. I joined the school paper, got to know the other people in my classes and at lunch a little better, everything a new student would do. But that's not why you're reading this story.

You don't care about my life. But that's ok, not many interesting things can happen to a sixteen year old girl who does nothing but go to school, do homework, and take pictures. I don't blame you for only wanting to see the parts that match up with or defy what Stephanie Meyer wrote.

So I'll just tell you this: Edward did not go to school for the rest of the week. Yeah, I know, surprise, surprise. He was tempted by your blood so he had to leave, what's next?

What's next is that you need to forget everything you think you know about me and Edward.

Do you think I even noticed that he was gone? Nope. I mean I noticed the lab table was a lot roomier without him, but that's about it.

So anyway, I'll start you off with the day he came back, the next Monday. And you know what, I'll even skip right to Biology, just for you.

I didn't know Edward was at school until I stepped into the classroom and saw him taking up the spot I had started putting my backpack in. So I was already grumpy when I sat down after sliding it under the table.

"Hello,"

I pulled my gaze from the board which was making me feel dumb as dough with all of its vocab and looked at him. And then I had to blink a couple of times.

"Whoa," I started, already digging around in my bag for my camera blindly as I continued to stare at him. "Can I take your picture? Your eyes are just…wow."

His purple eyes studied me. "Umm, no?"

I already had my camera in my hands, but I stopped my preparation to look back up at him. "No?"

"I don't know what you're going to do with it."

I gave him what I hoped was an assuring smile. "It's just for me, I swear. For artistic reasons, I mean. I need to get more pictures for my portfolio for college. And it would just be your eyes, no one would even know it was you."

He quirked his eyebrows. "So you're an artist? Figures as much."

"What do you mean?"

He gave me a half smile. "Nothing. You can take a picture, I guess. But just one."

My whole face lit up. "Thank you!" I practically shouted.

I couldn't believe I hadn't noticed that first day, through all the glaring, the color of his eyes. It wasn't every day you met someone with purple eyes.

The shot had to be perfect, I only got one try. The camera clicked and I looked down into purple perfection.

I glanced up at him.

"Good?" he asked.

"Perfect," I put the camera away and then tried to decipher the words on the board again.

"I'm sorry," he blurted.

I glanced at him. "Ok," and then I looked back at the board.

"Ok?"

"Yeah," I started. "I mean, bad day right?"

He didn't answer so I looked at him. He was staring at the board grinning a soft smile to himself.

"Yeah, actually."

I shrugged. "No big deal."

"So you just moved here?"

I sighed, I thought I was done with all these types of questions. Instead, I just looked at him.

"Stupid question, sorry, so why?"

The teacher was teaching now, but I was lost after the first mention of a ribosome.

"Why what?"

Edward wasn't even bothering to pay attention to the board.

"Why did you move?"

"The scenery."

He was still looking at me. "Serious, why did you move here?"

"My mom got remarried." Not like it was really news. They had been dating for years.

"So you had to change zip codes?" he asked, incredulous.

Man, it was like explaining life to a five-year-old. "They're newlyweds."

He caught on. "Oh, makes sense."

"Yeah,"

Edward raised his hand. "Prophase."

I didn't even know what that meant, but he was right.

And then we were given slides and told to find something scientific sounding in each of them and write it down.

"You're on your own." I told him, and lucky for me he didn't argue.

"So where did you move from?" His faced was glued up against the microscope for all of two seconds before he wrote an answer down.

"Phoenix."

"Uhuh, I'm assuming Biology was not in Phoenix?"

"Biology was an elective in Phoenix. I elected not to take it."

"Didn't like cutting up critters?"

"Exactly."

He was halfway down the sheet now.

"So what about this artist thing?"

"Artist thing?"

"What do you draw?"

That was always the question, 'what do you draw?' as if drawing was the only form of art in this world.

"I don't."

"You don't?"

"No."

"Soooo…what do you do then?"

"Photography."

"And you're going to college for…"

"Photography."

He let out a huffy kind of laugh. I glared at him.

"What's wrong with that?"

He was smirking in a way that said laughs were crowding around in his mouth. "Nothing, I just thought, you know, that you might actually get somewhere in life."

"You're an ass." I turned back towards the board and tried to ignore him.

He started laughing. "Oh, come on. It's not like you thought you could actually make a living just taking pictures."

I ignored him.

"Bella, be serious for a moment."

I remembered my counselor saying the same thing back in Phoenix.

"Yeah, but what are you going to do as a _job_?" He kept asking.

"That," I said, "I'll go to college and get a degree in some art major and then apply to different companies."

"What about being an art teacher?" He asked, talking over me.

"I don't draw."

"But you could."

"But I don't."

"Bella," Edward said for probably the millionth time. His head was back in his hands on the table, the way he had been sitting on my first day in that class. "Forget it, I take it back."

"No you don't."

He pulled his head up and let his hands drop to his lap. "Can we please just let this go?"

Hell no.

But I didn't want to say that. He was a jerk, a now blatantly obvious trait, but he was my lab partner and I'd have to get along with him for the rest of the year or else he wouldn't do all the work for me.

"Fine," I said coldly and turned back to the board.

The bell rang, signaling a change in classes, and he got up and left before I could bend over to grab my backpack.

My only period after that, gym, went quickly because we were playing cricket and I could never make it up to the bat to swing in time.

As soon as I walked through the door to my house, my phone went off.

_Hey girlie! Guess whos got a blind date this Saturday?_

I smiled. Juliet was forever getting set up on blind dates by friends, relatives, and co-workers but they never worked out.

_Is it the same girl who dumped the last one for eating with his mouth open?_

_ Its the one who will dump this one if he does the same thing_

_ Whats his name?_

_ Chance_

_ Hmm…played varsity hockey last year?_

_ So Ive heard…you know him?_

_ ICA last year…cute but short_

_ Me too…meant to be?_

_ Haha maybe_

_ Oh wait gotta go…..manager is looking at me_

I sighed, one of these days she was going to get fired for texting on the job.

The rest of my night went like usual: homework, dinner, homework, and then sleep.

When I woke up the next morning I couldn't pull myself away from the window. Snow covered every inch of space in our yard, towering higher than I had seen it within my nine days in Forks.

I made it downstairs just in time to leave but Charlie stopped me.

"Hey, Bells, remember to drive slow. The roads are slippery today with ice, take your time."

I smiled. "Ok,"

I did take my time, so as soon as I got my truck parked (no heat by the way totally sucks) I had to start walking to class. No time to sit around before the day started.

I slid out of my seat though, and had to grasp the door for life. The entire parking lot was nothing but ice. I gripped the bed of my truck as I slammed the door and locked it behind me. Then, eyes glued to the pavement and hands slightly out for balance, I carefully began placing one foot in front of the other.

I had almost made it past the bed of my truck when I heard the shouts. Looking up and straight ahead, my eyes connected with Edward's as he leaned against the back of his car. That was when, out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a van sliding uncontrollably across the icy ground and headed straight for him.

Others had noticed this as well, and I could almost feel the shouts building up in peoples' throats as we all watched the inevitable. But that's the horrible thing about these moments of terror: as soon as your mind realizes what is about to happen and forms a rational plan of action, it's too late.

The van crashed first into the car in front of Edward's, a person who had unfortunately not pulled into the spot all the way. There were screams as the car shifted with the impact and the front end hit an unprepared student. My eyes immediately searched the ground for the person along with everyone else's, but then I realized that the car was still moving.

The van and the right corner of the car it had hit were now smashed into Edward's car which in turn had hit the car next to it. It was a pile up of the worst kind and I could only imagine where Edward lay in the middle of it. There was no way to escape it, in some way he had been hit.

And my last conversation to him had involved me calling him an ass.

The cars all finally came to a stop, and I quickened my careful steps in order to go help the injured. I kept waiting to see his arm or leg protruding from under one of the cars. But how gruesome would he look? Would I even be a help to him if he was that damaged?

A figure approaching the cars caught my eye and I slowed my steps, and then I stopped altogether.

Edward, perfectly fine, was striding from his standing point three cars down from where he had been over to the accident. His cell phone was at his ear and he was talking into it, probably calling for an ambulance.

How did he move out of the way?

I just stood there in the middle of the icy parking lot, trying to piece together the impossible. Then my legs were able to move again, and they took me towards the answer.

He was now off the phone and standing off to the side of the accident, letting the school nurses and those who knew what they were doing handle the situation.

"Edward," I called, wincing when my words came out harder than normal. He watched my carefully placed footsteps closer with an expression that was almost pained. "Hey," I said when I finally stopped next to him.

"Hey," he responded guarded.

"That was lucky, you know, that the cars didn't hit you." I had been observing the progress of the ambulance as it shrieked into sight, but I glanced out of the corner of my eye up at Edward when I said this.

He turned to me and raised his eyebrows. "I am lucky; adrenaline is some lifesaving stuff."

"So you ran?"

He laughed without humor. "More like dove."

"That was a pretty big dive, fast too. Especially because we're on ice. I'm surprised you didn't slip."

He shrugged. I didn't even know what I was doing, why did it matter so much to me? But I just kept seeing him seconds from being hit followed by him walking back from three cars away. Why would he try to lie about something like this? Unless…

Oh, God, what if he threw a kid in his place in his haste to get away?

I watched the people being helped by the EMT's. I had missed where some of them where found; could there have been someone lying in Edward's place?

I looked at him out of the corner of my eye again. His eyes were closed but his face showed complete serenity.

Oh. My. God. I was standing next to a psychotic killer with no remorse for his victims.

I started stepping away and then stopped. _Wait, Iz, _I told myself, _you're jumping to conclusions. Edward's not a killer, what kind of bull shit is that? You've been watching too many movies with Renée. Calm down._

But then why was he lying to me?

It all came down to that. Edward was hiding something, possibly the fact that he threw a kid in front of a car. It could be something else, I just couldn't think of what that might be.

His face now looked pained.

"Well, I just…I'm gonna…umm…go to class."

He opened his eyes to look at me like I was crazy. "Bella, classes aren't really running at the moment." He pointed to the area by the ambulance. Most of the staff was body blocking the more emotional bystanders.

It totally didn't fit the situation, but I suddenly felt excited. "Do you think they'll cancel school?"

That same look, intensified. I looked back, eyes wide, showing him I was serious.

He rolled his eyes and snorted. "Only you would watch a pile up this ugly and wonder whether it would get you out of school or not."

I suddenly got angry. He was totally right, but that didn't mean he had to call me out on it. "Only you would somehow escape said pile up and then have a reason to lie about how you did it."

He turned to me sharply. "I didn't lie."

I started walking backwards towards the building. "But you didn't tell the truth either." Then I turned and finally made it to the grass where I could walk at a normal pace. If I felt Edward's stare on my back, I didn't let it on.


End file.
